In his “Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church” – which he performs Saturday and Sunday at the Hammer Museum – Harrell asks, What would have happened in 1963 if someone from the vogueing ball scene in Harlem had come to Manhattan to perform alongside the early postmodern dancers at the Judson Dance Theatre?

Harrell was intrigued by the idea of the ordinary movement in both vogueing and postmodern dance, according to the New York Times. Vogueing places the pedestrian body on the runway, while Judson Dance Theater — an experimental collective that led to postmodern dance — embraced the neutral body and the idea that anyone could dance, according to the article.

About the author

Phillip Zonkel

Award-winning journalist Phillip Zonkel spent 17 years at Long Beach's Press-Telegram, where he was the first reporter in the paper's history to have a beat covering the city's vibrant LGBTQ. He also created and ran the popular and innovative LGBTQ news blog, Out in the 562.

He won two awards and received a nomination for his reporting on the local LGBTQ community, including a two-part investigation that exposed anti-gay bullying of local high school students and the school districts' failure to implement state mandated protections for LGBTQ students.